Research Article
Loretta Franceschi, Sara D&rsq
Abstract
Posaconazole and voriconazole, two triazole antifungal agents, are used for the prophylaxis and treatment of invasive mycoses in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and/or immunocompromised. Inter- and intra-patient variability of pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, serum concentration related toxicity and success of therapy has stressed the need of frequently therapeutic drug monitoring of both drugs. Therefore, a rapid, selective and sensitive isocratic reversed-phase HPLC assay coupled with Mass spectrometry detection for quantification of posaconazole and voriconazole in serum samples has been developed. Analytes were extracted on solid-phase cartridges (SPE) and chromatographic separation was achieved on a C8 column and detected by mass spectrometry in positive ion mode with the select ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The total chromatographic running time was 6 minutes. The method was successfully used for a pharmacokinetic study but, thanks to its rapidity and selectivity, it’s also suitable for routinarly therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).